UK broadband, local TV boost expected on switchover help underspend

UK broadband and local television are expected to get a funding boost as the BBC will soon return nearly £300 million of unspent cash from the digital switchover help scheme, after the process proved easier than feared.

The corporation set up a £603m Digital Switchover Help Scheme (DSHS) to assist elderly and vulnerable people to convert their analogue TV equipment to digital as the switchover advanced across the UK.

On Wednesday, the switch was completed in London as analogue BBC One, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 were turned off, and Freeview signals boosted in their place for around 4.5m homes across the capital and surrounding counties.

More than 80% of the UK has now made the switch to digital TV and that will rise to 98.5% by the end of the process, in Northern Ireland on October 24.

The switchover help scheme has assisted around 1.2m households, but the BBC expects to return almost £300m of the £603m fund to the government, the top end of previous DSHS estimates of £250m-£300m.

Under the scheme, over-75s, the blind and partially sighted and people with other serious disabilities could apply to get free help to convert one TV set in their home.

But the £603m budget was allocated at a time when digital TV takeup was slower, and it has been found that many homes have already made the switch on their own.

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